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2009 so far

Hi everyone, I hope your 2009 is going well so far. It's our last game day before the All-Star Break so I thought I'd give you a quick update about what's going on with me.

My birthday was on January 10th and it was nice to have my parents in town for that. They spent a week here in Edmonton so it was great getting to spend some time with them. They flew back to Minnesota on my birthday, so after practice I hung out with Robert Nilsson, who was also celebrating his birthday. We're big movie guys so we went and saw a double feature. First up was The Unborn and that was pretty brutal. It wasn't even that scary. And then we saw Gran Torino which was probably one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. We went for dinner after that, so all in all it was a pretty exciting 26th birthday.

The next week I was back in Minnesota for our game vs. the Wild. I got to visit with a bunch of friends and my younger brother but my parents were both on vacation so they couldn't come to the game. It's always nice going back to Minnesota but we haven't won a game since I've been there so I'm still waiting for that to happen. I love playing in that rink and it's exciting to play in your hometown in front of friends and family.

A few of you have asked for my thoughts on The Shack but I'll be honest and admit that I haven't finished it yet. It's really good so far and I have only about 30 pages to go. Unless I get into a big reading kick over the All-Star break I don't think I'll be able to meet my New Year's resolution of reading two books a month. One book is more reasonable. (My other resolution of making my bed every morning is already finished. I don't even know why I tried.)

We play the Blue Jackets tonight and then we might have a quick practice tomorrow before the All Star break takes over. I'm going to Vegas with Denis and we'll meet up with a few of the other guys like Nilsson and Penner. It'll be nice to hang out and golf and spend some time with them away from the rink. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be sure to tell you all about it when we get back into town next week.